Just got a delivery in the post from John at Uncarved a wicked Ragga Roots CD (listening to it right now, no ID3 tags shame on you John!) and a fucking cool article, on what distinctly looks like paper, by a certain Howard Slater entitled "Lotta Continua: Roots Music and The Politics of Production". You think that sounds all academic and stuffy? I think it looks fucking hilariously brilliant. Check the Bibliography on the back....er fumbles to back of creased photocopy.....Walter Benjamin "Author as Producer", Graham Birtwistle "Living Art", Gilles Deleuze "Cinema Two", Pierre Klossowski "Diana at her bath", Karl Marx "The German Idealogy" (ha ha this is ferreal), and er Toni Negri "Social Struggles in Italy"...oh look also Pier Aldo Rovatti with the seductively titled "The Critique of Fetishism in Marx's Grundrisse". Just wait till I get this to The Weathered Rock of Stratford.
I'm always slagging off The Wire for being all high-brow and ivory tower. I've actually been begging them for work recently. It's all envy and jealousy I tell you. I'd kill for Philip Sherburne's job. In fact I'd probably kill Phil for his job. They're either ignoring me or they just are completely fucking oblivious of me. There's no shortage of people who want to talk about music, go to a pub for chrissakes! I'll bet Peter Shapiro's tripped round the blogs, he's such a net-head, and maybe he's been over here. Hi Pete! (empty echoing room) Don't mind me prating on like this! Anyway the last thing The Wire need is another mouthy personality-obsessed tea-boy. I'm probably better on the fringes, an amateur journo forever (cries into expensive freshly squeezed carrot and apple presse) Anyone recall one Sylvestre Balastrade who they let loose on reviews for a while? Ahem. The general point being the particular axe I grind with The Wire is this: They used to survey the whole landscape from atop a mountain, and currently they manage a little macrobiotic organic farm on the estuary. I'd like a bit more theory like Ian Penman espouses chez lui. I don't think that should preclude learning about a wider more interesting field of music. Indeed theory, if used well, can help socially-incapacitated over-educated bourgeous losers like us all to grasp the dynamics which affect society. Kind of like electro-shock therapy. Or Wilhelm Reich manipualting bodies.
To return to John's package. What great people out here! Followed a link yesterday and found Dave Mandl's Psygeocon Forum which if you've read my Cary Grant comic (Luke was alluding to it, and i guess it's on-topic, being largely about music) you'll know I'd find interesting. There's alot of new blogs sprouting up, and as a self-confessed amateur who enjoys the opportunity to talk openly with the pros, I'd like to say that I'd be sad if some of these other big$hots don't feel the need to DISCUSS. Hey not with ME! On the other hand maybe that's just my tip (I've been critcised for it before) and maybe blogs are more suited to monomaniacal rants. Maybe if you want to get messy and greet the natives you should go to a chat-room. Is it a diary? Is it a bar?
Hey John I can see why you borrowed that Half Pint "Political Friction" from your mate Danny!
Posted by Woebot at May 16, 2003 10:09 AM